European Wax Center
At European Wax Center, the definition of “influence” is changing. Rather than focusing on follower count, the brand’s social media and influencer team look for creators with an engagement of over 3% and positive comment sentiment — an indication that the creator is able to compel their audience to act.
The Results
Boosting ROI & Awareness Without an Agency
Since 2004, European Wax Center has provided first-class, professional waxing services to guests in over 800 centers around the United States. But as the pandemic forced restrictions on in-person experiences, the brand had to revamp its strategies to foster digital connections with its community and attract new customers for when it was time to re-open its centers.
Prior to leveraging Aspire, European Wax Center managed all of its influencer marketing programs through an agency. The agency’s high cost and markups for campaigns, paired with the lack of ability to scale programs, made it difficult for European Wax Center to reach its brand awareness goals. With Aspire, European Wax Center’s team can bring the influencer program in-house and maintain full transparency into every relationship.
Scaling From 15 to 100+ Influencers
European Wax Center leverages Aspire to narrow in on their ideal brand partners — people with similar goals and high-quality content — in a matter of minutes. In fact, the brand has received over 1,700 partnership proposals from the creator marketplace on Aspire. As a result, European Wax Center has scaled its program 7x. The saved time managing campaigns has allowed the team to focus on experimentation, working with a diverse pool of creators to find what content resonates. Now, the brand’s content library on Aspire is a goldmine of quality assets that all of European Wax Center’s marketing team repurposes on their website, organic social, emails, and more.
Driving Impact Across Social Platforms
European Wax Center worked with a wide range of creators across channels to generate TikTok videos, Instagram feed posts, and Stories for its 2020 Holidays & Hygiene campaign. Creators educated their audiences on European Wax Center’s increased hygiene measures and encouraged them to treat themselves to a safe self-care day. While the brand’s influencer marketing ROI is typically 150%, this campaign exceeded expectations, resulting in 450% ROI and 40% engagement.
From Influencers to Ambassadors
As the influencer marketing industry evolves, European Wax Center is looking to form more authentic relationships with creators by building a brand ambassador program. Kara Salazar, European Wax Center’s Social Media and Influencer Manager, explains, “Brand ambassadors are becoming more pivotal in the space. With influencer marketing becoming such a beast, ambassadors end up coming off as more authentic to whatever brand they are promoting.” The brand plans on working with Aspire to expand beyond traditional social media influencers to partner with more members of its community, including its Peer Trainers (associates), customers, and college students.
